Changeling
By Glimmerglass
Prologue
Before Ilana knew breath, she knew the stars. The bursts of light that swirled and darted through the universe, the frozen fire of a galaxy, the cold stillness of fragmentless air. She knew the dance of consciousness and the hollow flight of time-leaping. Yet Ilana knew no grass and trees and flowers, no mountains and oceans and city. But most of all, she did not know life.
She felt everything – the pulse of existence across all time and all matter. She could feel similar bursts of consciousness across the universes, but she did not think of it as anything more than there. She did not think at all. She merely existed, present in the momentary explosions of particles and the ice of vacuums. She couldn't expect; she couldn't dream; she couldn't know. She was the child of nothing and the result of all.
But then it changed. Everything disappeared. The stars ceased to shine; the air was heavy and warm; blackness of an unlit sort clouded her sight. She felt softness and heat and rawness. Smells crowded her self unpleasantly. She reached out to the universe and felt nothing. For the first time, Ilana was afraid.
Then she opened her eyes, and breathed.
A/N: Thank you for reading. I apologize for the briefness of this chapter. Those that follow should be longer.